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"Old Ferry Terminal, San Francisco Bay,"
woodblock print, 24" x 14"
edition of 75 on Japanese paper,
$200 framed, $150 unframed

"Mountaintop Experience #1"

woodblock print,  edition of 75

printed with water-based pigments on Iyo Glazed paper

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Why?

Why people should study art

     Here are 11 reasons to study art.  There are more reasons than this, but these are the ones most important to me.
     Did you ever see a beautiful sunset or the happy face of a child, and think, I wish I could hold on to this beautiful moment forever?  One person who tries to hold on to that beautiful moment is the artist.  The artist tries to capture that moment on canvas or paper, marble or clay or in one of the innumerable materials of art called art media. 
     In order to capture that moment of beauty, you need more than pencils and paper.  You need to be taught the skills of drawing, painting, and sculpting, and the visual language of art.   People are not born knowing how to draw.  Just as they need to be taught how to form letters in order to write, they also need to build the nervous system memory that enables them to form pictures with their fingers grasping a pencil, pen or brush. 
     A second reason to study art is so that you can communicate with the visual language of art, without words, when the truth simply cannot be stated verbally, or is buried so far in the subconscious that it is inaccessible.  People are not born knowing how to communicate visually.  They need to learn the language of art in order to express themselves.  It’s a visual language which varies from one culture to another.
     The practice of art improves eye-hand coordination and manual dexterity .  The child grasps the pencil or pen and, at that point, begins the struggle for mastery of the medium.  When we write letters with our hands, a picture of the letters is drawn on our minds. Later on, try signing your name with your eyes closed.  You will be able to do it almost as well as with them open, because your hands have memory.  Some people think the memory is in the muscles and some think its in the brain.  Wherever the memory is located, practicing drawing something over and over will improve your ability to draw it. The drawing teacher has many methods to teach drawing of people, animals, landscapes, abstractions, shading, contours, negative space as well as gestural drawing.
     The fourth reason is what the academics call connections .  By that they mean connections between art and other subjects taught in school.  Our allies, the Mexicans, have encouraged us to teach drawing and sculpture of skeletons at Halloween, which they call  the Day of the Dead.  That is a connectionto science, to medicine, and to another culture. Japanese cartoonists give us the art of Hanga, which are comic books with muscles of the characters clearly defined. Museum directors are the last bastion to protect the public's right to see depictions of the human figure in the nude, something important in the study of medicine. The study of physiology improves life drawing ability enormously, contrary to the belief of some who seem to think that knowledge of physiology is secret information imparted to only a privileged few.  Life drawing is required by all US college art departments as a requirement for a degree in art.  There are always pictures of nudes in high school art textbooks, because many paintings from the Rennaisance, Baroque and Rococo contained nudes. However, it is extremely unusual for a high school drawing class to have a nude model. I have only heard of this once, and I didn't actually see it.  Drawing flowers and plants is an important branch of art called botanical illustration.  Boys often choose to draw cars, a connection to engineering.  Architectual sculpture can increase understanding of ancient history and other cultures.. 
        The fifth reason for studying art is because the creation of art teaches making choices .  Choice of materials, choice of subject matter, choice of size of the art work, choice of what color to use, choosing placement of the objects on the picture plane, (which is called composition), and also the choice of when the art work is finished.  Choices are very important to our children.  Children find pleasure in their ability to make choices.  A good art teacher can continually tell the choices available to the student artist until those choices become internalized. 
     Art criticism is part of the study of art.  Criticism in this context does not mean saying what is bad about the art work.  It merely means writing about art. The criticism of art improves our vision: literally our ability to see details and to make a correct interpretation of what we are seeing.  The official explanation of the picture may not match what the viewer sees.  The domain of art criticism provides a systematic way of checking our observations and evaluating a picture, as we describe it in words, noting the use of art elements and art principles, search for the meaning of the art work and the intention of the artist and finally evaluate whether it is worth looking at again or telling someone else about. 
     The study of art increases our awareness of the importance of handling hazardous materials correctly.  We use hazardous materials every day because we use cleaning materials.  If they are used carelessly or without supervision, we can hurt ourselves.  Learning art should include instruction on safe practices and clean up.  Contrary to what some people think, making art does not mean making a mess.
     The study of art increases our vocabulary when we learn the many special words that are part of the art domain.  These are words like chiaroscuro, composition, and fresco.  These new words help a person to express himself accurately and also to score well on standardized tests.
The study of art increases our pleasure in recognizing and viewing art objects because we know more about them.  We learn more about how and when they were made, and by whom.  We can tell others about them.  We can engage our friends in conversation and speculation about the meaning of the art works and the intention of the artist who created them.  In other words, we can enjoy a visit to a museum or a gallery more than we did before.  We may become able to recognize who created a work of art because we recognize the individual style. 
     Studying art usually means being part of a group .  It means becoming part of the art world, a world of formal and informal clubs, with traditions such as art receptions and many other opportunities to make friends and learn from each other.
     Studying art can lead to making money selling your art or the art of others,  or in some other role in the art world.  Occupations include architecture, television, computer web design, teacher, book illustration and many more, even for people who can’t draw very well.  People don’t need to be able to draw, to design on a computer.  But it helps them a lot to know about art elements such as value, line, color, shape, form and texture, and principles such as space, composition, movement, balance, symmetry, rhythm, dominance and emphasis.
     In summary, some reasons to study art are to create beauty, to communicate non-verbally, to improve eye-hand coordination and manual dexterity, to make connections with other academic subjects, to make choices, to improve your vision and learn safe practices, to expand your vocabulary and increase your pleasure in viewing art because of greater knowledge about it, to be part of a group and perhaps to even make some money.
            Perhaps one or two of these reasons to study art will lead you to enjoy art and support it when the public and private schools ask for financial and political support for art.  I hope it will lead you to invest some of your own personal time and money in the study of art.

Why am I so interested in printmaking? For years I sold or gave away just about every oil painting or watercolor I made. I was so poor for so many years, that every year at holiday time I looked around the house for paintings to give to my loved ones, because that was all I had to give. When I became a printmaker I was able to make editions of prints, usually limited to about 10 to 25 prints of the same thing. Then I could give prints as gifts and still have one for myself! When I re-entered college in 1991, I decided to study printmaking seriously! Now in my 60's, I have returned to my childhood love of horses to sketch and create a series of drawings and etchings of horses at the race track and elsewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Now my editions are up to 75 prints from an etching plate or woodblock. I have to keep it under 200 to be considered fine art. Anything over 200 becomes commercial art. I have participated in many print exchanges with other printmakers and have become experienced at making large editions.)

My San Francisco State University woodcut instructor replied to my defense of printmaking as a way to create more than one piece of art work. She said "The reason people should make prints is because they are so beautiful ." She was right about that: each medium has its own special kind of beauty and power: woodcuts and linocuts because they are bold and organic; etchings because of the varied and expressive nature of the marks in the metal; and lithographs because of the silky quality of drawing on limestone combined with their intense and insistent color.

Now my horizons have expanded to include lithographs, etchings, computer prints, and hand-set, handmade artist's books. A gift of lead type from my lithography instructor enabled me to pursue my dream of becoming a publisher once again. The printmaking category of intaglio encompasses etchings, drypoints, aquatints, and mezzotint. Computer printmaking has expanded my printmaking horizons and provided hours of creative enjoyment and mental challenge.

Since studying printmaking at San Francisco State University, I began expressing social concerns, as well as making pretty pictures to sell and give as gifts. Each war our young men and women served in, brought from me a commemorative print, documenting the agony of war and the reason for our US involvement in it. I continued that involvement with a commemorative print of the 911 tragedy, created for a portfolio sponsored by the American Print Alliance .

Postgraduate study of Japanese rice-paste-and watercolor wood block printing methods, taught by Katherine McKay, and April Vollmer, increased my desire to teach multicultural printmaking. African printing on cloth and Latin American silkscreen printmaking are also topics which interest me.

However, multiculturalism in printmaking refers to much more than technique. It also refers to the issues that fine art may address, such as identity, ancient symbolism, representation, social and political conscience, language, narrative ethnic history, subject and style. Interviews with two San Francisco Bay Area printmakers highlight these issues.

If you have any suggestions or comments, please e-mail me at jeaneger@jeaneger.com I'd love to hear from you!

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Woodcuts: a beginner's guide

Getting started with a one color print
Making a two color print using a separate registration block
Making a two color print using Japanese Kento registration

Getting Started

You will need:

• 1/2 inch thick piece of wood, about 8 in. by 10 in. preferably pine or birch plywood. You can use linoleum, if you wish, but it is best to buy the stuff specially made for art work, called battleship linoleum.
• woodcutting tools or linoleum cutting tools....
  Safety Rule!...A woodcutting knife is a tool, not a weapon. Use your woodcutting knives with care and keep them sharp by sharpening them on a stone which you can buy in any hardware store. Watch the position of the woodcutting knife relative to how you are holding your hands. You don't want to cut towards your other hand. That is why this woodcut lesson is not suggested for children under the sixth grade.  Here is an animation of one correct hand position. (505K)

You can buy linoleum block cutting tools in a hobby shop or order woodcutting tools from Daniel Smith, Inc., in Seattle. 1-800-426-6740. If you call Daniel Smith they will send you a beautiful free catalog of artist's materials. Utrecht is another good supplier. Utrecht's New York number is 1-800-223-9132. In San Francisco call 1-800-961-9612. THE COMPLETE PRINTMAKER, by John Ross, Clare Romano, and Tim Ross (Collier Macmillan Publishers, London, 1990) contains an extensive list of suppliers' addresses and telephone numbers, including press manufacturers.

• inexpensive Chinese white watercolor
• India ink
• cheap watercolor brush
• black sharpie pen
• paper...Almost any paper will work, including copier paper or computer paper. However, a good rice paper is recommended. Mulberry or Hosho are two papers which come to mind. (Mulberry paper was used to create the scanned background for this page.) You can use any kind of paper for proofing. Conservation of natural resources is a real issue here in the United States, so we have to consider that when we choose paper.
• wooden spoon and/or

baren (the round rubbing tool covered with a bamboo leaf)

• plate glass for rolling up the ink 
• brayer
• rags (for oil-based printmaking
• turpentine or similar solvent for cleaning up (for oil-based printmaking)
• shellac(optional, for oil-based printmaking)
• ink...Speedball inks are most widely available in our area, although other inks are just as good. Check to see if you are purchasing oil-based or water-based ink.

Here's how to do it!

I started out making woodcuts and that remains my favorite medium today. Here's how to do it: you get a nice, flat, scrap piece of pine that isn't all warped, from a lumber yard, or hardware store or neighbor.

Sand the wood if it isn't smooth. That means you might have to go to the hardware store and stare at the different grades of sandpaper wondering which level of grit to use. It depends on how rough the wood is. If the wood is really rough, get a large heavy grit and work your way down to a fine grit. You could ask the salesman (who might also be the owner of the store) and he will tell you if you ask nicely, maybe, if he is not too busy or didn't have a bad day.

Later on when you've been making prints for awhile you can get into birch plywood (it comes in different thicknesses, which may or may not warp), or even Shina plywood which you may have to order from McClain's printmaking supplies in Portland. Actually you can use almost any wood that is flat, including doorskin, which is inexpensive.

Once you have your piece of wood, you can draw on it with a black Sharpie pen (a permanent marker), then cut away everything that isn't black. It works best if you plan large areas of black, instead of tiny, thin, black lines which will be very difficult to cut. In other words, don't try to imitate Albrecht Durer on your first woodcut. If you want to be
neat and precise, you can paint the surface of your wood with thin grey paint--Chinese white watercolor mixed with a little India ink and water. After that dries, draw on it with a Sharpie pen. Then, when you have cut the negative space away, you will be able to see where you have cut.

Otherwise, you can just to draw on the wood with anything you have, then cut away everything that isn't the picture. It's hard to see what you are doing this way, but the results can be exquisitely beautiful.

PRINTING THE PRINT 

Now that you have carved out everything that ISN'T your picture, you start the second part of the printmaking process: the printing part. You have to decide whether to use water-based ink or oil-based ink.. Water based inks are easier to clean up, but give different aesthetic results.

Squeeze a dab of ink onto the glass. Roll your brayer over it, so that it spreads the ink evenly on the roller. Roll the brayer horizontally, then vertically. Pick the brayer up at the end of each roll; otherwise you aren't spreading the ink. Roll the ink onto the woodblock. Keep rolling up until the woodblock is evenly coated, but not too much. Place the paper face down onto the block. Once you have placed it, don't move it around. Smooth the back of it with your hand. Rub the back of the paper all over with the wooden spoon. Pick up the paper and take a look. Do you need to use more pressure the next time you print? Do you need to roll up with more or less ink, or more evenly? Do you need to rub more evenly? If you want to check the print while you are rubbing it, you can pick up the corner of the paper with one hand, while holding the other end down with the other hand. That way the paper will fall back in the same place.

Well, that was pretty easy, wasn't it? You should try making different kinds of marks on the wood with the different tools, varying the width of your lines, making patterns of black and white, and making areas of different kinds of textures.

Beauty

Woodcuts which show some of the quality of the wood itself in the print are highly prized. Many printmaking artists respond to Gauguin's prints or the works of Albrecht Durer. These are the artists with whose works I am most familiar, because my cultural heritage is western European. The similar relief process of linoleum block prints (called linocuts) can produce bold and dramatic prints because of the high contrast of black and white, although one can make them in color too. The linocuts of Picasso are also greatly admired here in the United States.

Woodcuts and linocuts are both in the printmaking category called relief. The word "relief" comes from the French word "relever," which means to raise again. In a woodcut, the raised part is the part that prints. Thus, the word "relief" encompasses printmaking methods which print on a raised surface. This word probably has its roots in Latin, as most English words do.

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copyright 1995 through 2008 by Jean Eger Womack
M.A. Creativity and Arts Education, San Francisco State University
B.A. Art, San Francisco State University
A.A. Art, Contra Costa College


Revised April 28, 2008

on the web since 1995

jeaneger@jeaneger.com

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 This Printmaker's Webring site owned by Jean Eger Womack .
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